Bird and Ball?

[Capt. Jas.]

There are many imponderables, Captain, and I was not put on this Earth to answer all of these things for you. I have never made any claim to knowing all the answers. How about doing your own research? :hmm:

Well that was quite and epistle of straw and a very smart a$$ed conclusion. I merely questioned your comment written with an appearance of dogmatic authoratative knowledge but evidently lacking therin. The manner in which you construct most of your posts do in fact lead many to believe you "know all the answers".

I am currently looking for documentation for the use of a PRB in the 18th century and raise the question when it comes up in hopes of getting a bite on a lead. My apologies to the original poster for straying from the thread.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Sir: You are always welcome to ask me a question by PM. YOur habit of breaking into a thread, with an accusatorial question of me is irritating at the very least, and insulting most of the time. If you don't like the way I write, fine. Tell me about it in a PM. I don't need to hear it here.

My apology to the original poster.

I have given you two cites to references to answer your question. If that is not enough, that is your problem. You question is akin to asking "why is there air?"

If you understand the historical development of firearms, the invention of rifling, the difference in depth of grooves for shooting round balls, vs. conicals, it should not take much real thought to figure out that some kind of patching was used much earlier than the 18th century, even in smoothbores, when a RB was being fired. I do suppose some knowledge of the kind of machinery and tools used in metal work in the pre-industrial age helps to understand the " whys" of these things.

Since Dr. Sam Fadala is considered to be one of the leading current authorities on Black powder and muzzleloading firearms, I would think the cite to his work is enough for anyone. I believe he cites a text written in 1718. That should be 18th century enough even for you!

 

[Cosmoline]

Mostly, hunters didn't just ' stumble " into a bear. They first saw its tracks, and then decided to follow it and kill it for all the fat it would give them, in addition to the meat. At that point they would pull their OS wad, dump out the shot( which they saved!) and replaced the shot with a PRB.

I'm actually thinking in present tense on this question, but the historical issues are also interesting. I suspect they would not have seen any problem with shooting the bear with the shot. More advanced knowledge of biology and bullet performance on game was limited to a few professional hunters. In fact I believe I've encountered references to giving intrusive bears a wiff of what we would consider far too light shot back in the 19th century and possibly earlier. I'll look into it.

My issues are more practical. If I opt to carry my trade gun for small game, which I'd love to do this spring, what about the early risers? Throwing a .715" unpatched RB down the barrel in a pinch would possibly work like a referse buck-and-ball, or possibly wouldn't work at all. I'm going to check the pattern on my next trip out.